Vegetarian Potpies for Thanksgiving

Blogging Marthon# 46: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Festival Special -- Thanksgiving
Dish: Vegetarian Potpies

For the third day of Blogging Marathon, I made some Individual Vegetarian Potpies. Pot pies are hearty and filling and can be easily customized to ones dietary requirements and/ or ingredient availability. They can be made into one big casserole or as individual potpies. 

Creamy filling made with assorted vegetables forms the base of these delicious potpies. I used chickpeas to add some protein to the dish. The pastry topping that covers the filling adds an extra layer of texture and flavor to these pies.

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Vegetarian Meatloaf (with Rice & Lentils) with Checca Suace

Blogging Marthon# 46: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Festival Special -- Thanksgiving
Dish: Vegetarian Meatloaf (with Rice & Lentils) with Checca Sauce

Well's Vegetarian Thanksgiving from New York Times is a great resource for vegetarian and vegan dishes to make for Thanksgiving. The New York Times editors curate a huge list of non-traditional no-turkey/ meat dishes on their Well's blog. I think they have been doing this every year since 2010. They have an impressive line up of dishes from famous food writers and chefs utilizing the fall harvest and delicious vegetables. 

The idea to make a Vegetarian meatloaf came from one of the Well's Thanksgiving menus. Meatloaf is exactly what it sounds like --- meat made into a loaf. Most vegetarian meatloaves are  made of lentils, mushrooms or TVP (soy granules). The recipe I used today uses both lentils and rice for the structure. I remember watching Giada making it on Food Network and wanted to try the recipe.

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Pumpkin Rice for Thanksgiving (Arroz con Calabaza -- Vegan Recipe)

Blogging Marthon# 46: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Festival Special -- Thanksgiving
Dish: Pumpkin Rice/ Arroz con Calabaza

We are starting a new edition of Blogging Marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Festival Special. Since it's November and we are only few weeks away from Thanksgiving, I decided to make some easy Vegetarian dishes for the occasion.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in the United States. It is the day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. The holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions -- it has aspects of harvest festival almost similar to that of Pongal in South India. 

For the very first Thanksgiving in the US, the Dean of our Department invited few of us poor graduate students who didn't have anywhere to go. There was so much food and that was the first turkey I saw in my life (dead that is...) Thankfully they had lot of vegetarian food too that I was able to enjoy.

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Austrian Vegetable Strudel

For this month's International Food Challenge, our host Briju Parthasarathy is taking us on a culinary tour of Austria. She gave us 4 Lower Austrian dishes to choose from and I picked the Austrian Vegetable Strudel.

Some wiki gyan about Strudel: Strudel is a type layered pastry with a -- most often -- sweet filling. Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The savory strudel is filled with crisp tender vegetables and cheese. It almost sounded like the veggie pastry we used to get back home at the bakeries. Original recipe had rutabaga, parsnip etc, but I used vegetables I had on hand; sweet potato, carrots, green beans and red pepper. Also to add some protein, I added some soy granules as well.

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